Equipt 101: DC-25 Power Pack and Portable Power Pack Comparison

Video Transcript

Intro

Hi, this is Paul with Equipt Expedition Outfitters. Today, I want to talk to you about some of the similarities and some of the differences between the National Luna Portable Power Pack and the DC25 Power Pack. They share a lot in common, but there are some distinct differences that we should probably point out.

First of all, let's talk about the power packs in general. Both of these units are ideal solutions for you if you're looking to put an auxiliary battery in your vehicle but don't have any location under the hood or under the vehicle that makes sense for that. These would be wonderful in the back of any pickup, van, or SUV for use as an auxiliary power solution.

What's Included

Both of them and what you get: each one of them is contained in a box. The box is the same size for either of them. These boxes are designed to hold a group 31 size battery on the inside of them. They both have a tie-down bracket that's based out of the bottom of the unit. They also have recessed locations for bolting this down into a flat, stable base within a vehicle area. They both come with a set of cables that has a red Anderson coupler on the end of it. This cable is what they call a millimeter squared cable, which is roughly the size of a number four wire. That's plenty to run either of the systems. The red Anderson, of course, plugs into the front of either of them.

Both of the units come with a set of hardware. The hardware includes the lugs for the wires, an in-line fuse, battery terminals, all things necessary to make these work. The DC-25 has the same system that is all that's necessary for you to hook either of these systems up. Two wires run positive and negative to your main battery of the vehicle. Both of these systems will work on there.

Power Distribution

What they also have in common is the use of power distribution management right on the face of the units themselves. We have a scale for the auxiliary battery as well as the main battery. That gauge is right up here on the DC-25. You have power takeoff locations for Hella, cigarette lighter, USB, and others built into this unit, same as the face that is on this one here. You also have the ability to run a remote control from this unit through a cable to a dual battery controller up in the cab of the vehicle. That is possible through the monitoring system on the BC25.

Different units, same relative capabilities. There is a power takeoff here with the gray Anderson coupler that in this unit, you can run a solar panel through a solar controller and into this unit. This one here has an integrated MPPT solar controller built into it, so you can run up to a 25 amp controller, so up to 375 watts of solar panel as an output on this machine. It has a solar input plug built right into the face of it.

From there, they change a little bit as far as how the batteries are charged. Now that's the real difference between these two machines. This machine uses the current directly off of the terminals of your main battery generated by the alternator in your vehicle. That alternator current will fluctuate with the vehicle, and this will charge directly off that current just like the battery your car does.

Battery Types

Now the big difference to this machine is that this one will take the current that is available from the battery when the vehicle is on and it will adjust it to a DC to DC output of 25 amps at a constant 14.4 volts. Now that comes into play specifically when you're looking at the type of battery that you're trying to charge with this system. Both of them can handle just about any type of battery that we're using in our vehicles, whether it's a wet, a gel, an AGM, but the DC 25 Power Pack can also handle lithium, both lithium-ion and LiFePO4 batteries in this solution. This power pack does not work too well with the lithium products; it's not designed for charging of those of that nature, so that's where this one shines a little bit more.

Price

There's also a difference in price. This one's roughly half the price of our green machine here, so that comes into play as well too. So it really depends on what your goals and plans are, how much solar you're going to be using, if you're going to be using solar, are you going to be going with the lithium battery solution or not, what is the output of your vehicle as far as the voltage of the output.

In general terms, and there's a lot more information that we can provide on our website, in general terms, if your vehicle is putting out more than 13.9 volts to the auxiliary battery, this is an excellent solution and will charge your batteries actually quicker than this one will up to a certain point. But if your alternator is not putting out a constant 13.9 plus volts, this would be a better way to go about things because this one will take that lower voltage output, pull it into its little magic box, and push out a voltage of 14.4 at about 25 amps.

So I hope that helped solve some of the similarities and differences questions. If you have any more questions at all, please give us a holler here at equipt1.com. We'd be more than happy to help you with your questions. Again, I'm Paul May, I appreciate your time.